MADAME BOVARY: The Novel (spoilers, ok)

[ConnieAnnKirk]

This will be our thread for discussing Madame Bovary as a whole, or in part.  Readers should know, though, that this thread may contain spoilers, since discussion is open about any topic from the book.

We'll have other threads that will break down the book into 4 parts for the weeks of August for reades who like to discuss sections as they read.

[Peppermill]

Madame Bovary is one of those novels I have never been successful in reading -- I have always become too exasperated by the characters and the pace.  (This time, I started with the ending chapters.)

However, I spent much of this morning with Vladimar Nabakov's lecture notes on MB.  I was absolutely delighted with the insights he provides.

Lectures on Literature 

[IBIS]

I'd love to hear what Nabakov insights are. Can you share some of them, Peppermill?

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Peppermill wrote:

Madame Bovary is one of those novels I have never been successful in reading -- I have always become too exasperated by the characters and the pace.  (This time, I started with the ending chapters.)

However, I spent much of this morning with Vladimar Nabakov's lecture notes on MB.  I was absolutely delighted with the insights he provides.

Lectures on Literature 

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[Peppermill]

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IBIS wrote:

I'd love to hear what Nabokov insights are. Can you share some of them, Peppermill?

---

I have added some to the thread on Chapters 1+, but here are a couple of general ones for here:

"We now start to enjoy yet another masterpiece, yet another fairy tale. Of all the fairy tales in this series, Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary is the most romantic.  Stylistically it is prose doing what poetry is supposed to do."

 

 "...Let us not kid ourselves; let us remember that literature is of no practical value whatsoever, except in the very special case of somebody's wishing to become, of all things, a professor of literature.  The girl Emma Bovary never existed: the book Madame Bovary shall exist forever and ever.  A book lives longer than a girl. "

"We shall discuss Madame Bovary as Flaubert intended it to be discussed: in terms of structures (mouvements as he termed them), thematic lines, style, poetry, and characters.  The novel consists of thirty-five chapters, each about ten pages long, and is divided into three parts set respectively in Rouen and Tostes, in Yonville, and in Yonville, Rouen and Yonville, all of these places invented except Rouen, a cathedral city in northern France.

"The main action is supposed to take place in the 1830s and 1840s, under King Louis Phillippe (1830-1848).  Chapter 1 begins in the winter of 1827, and in a kind of afterword the lives of some of the characters are followed up till 1856 into the reign of Napoleon III and indeed up to the date of Flaubert's completing the book...."

[Peppermill]

One of the motifs Nabokov suggests following in Madame Bovary is the horses.  He lists about over twenty incidents (I'll post some another time); I have found what I consider to be even more since having been alerted to this as a deliberate device.  It has been rather fun to notice and conjecture as to the tricks Flaubert played.

(A couple of examples to start:  1) (mine, not VN)  "He managed his daily assignment of work like a millhorse who trots around in blinkers, unaware of what he is grinding." Chapter 1; 2) (VN) "In Chapter 2 Bovary's horse -- horses play a tremendous part in this book, forming a little theme of their own -- takes him at a dreamy trot to Emma, the daughter of a patient of his...." )

Message Edited by Peppermill on 08-06-2009 04:46 PM

[IBIS]

Thank you, Peppermill, for bringing up the horse motif in "Madame Bovary."

I've always enjoyed the "treasure hunt" approach to finding motifs in classics. There are several in "Madame Bovary". Here are two that I've noticed so far.

WINDOWS.... Just in these early chapters, we see windows come up again and again... they're associated with Emma... we often see her looking out of them, or we glimpse her through windows. When she contemplates suicide, she thinks about jumping out a window.

Emma's father bangs the window shutter open to tell Charles that she accepts his proposal.

At the ball, because of the heat, a servant breaks a window to let air in. Emma sees the peasants outside staring in, they remind her of her similar humble origins.

EATING...  another motif. There is a LOT of eating going on in this novel. There is enough food to feed busloads (cartloads?) of peasants. At her wedding feast, Flaubert described the food in such detail, it seemed like too much food for 43 guests to eat.

And HOW one eats is reveals important character traits... Charles has atrocious table manners. We see him through Emma's eyes, and she is disgusted with him. She thinks he is boorish and lacks sophistication.

At the fancy ball, she observes the exquisite table manners of the aristocrats... The expensive foods they consume tells us of the refinement and sophistication of their class. When she sees the women put their gloves inside their wine glasses, she's totally charmed by it.

But what's most telling is when Charles courts her, and they share a glass of wine. Flaubert shows her sucking her fingers and licking out the bottom of her wine glass. This reveals to us, despite all her pretensions to refinement, her basic animal sensuality and lust for physical pleasure.

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Peppermill wrote:

One of the motifs Nabokov suggests following in Madame Bovary is the horses.  He lists about over twenty incidents (I'll post some another time); I have found what I consider to be even more since having been alerted to this as a deliberate device.  It has been rather fun to notice and conjecture as to the tricks Flaubert played.

(A couple of examples to start:  1) (mine, not VN)  "He managed his daily assignment of work like a millhorse who trots around in blinkers, unaware of what he is grinding." Chapter 1; 2) (VN) "In Chapter 2 Bovary's horse -- horses play a tremendous part in this book, forming a little theme of their own -- takes him at a dreamy trot to Emma, the daughter of a patient of his...." )

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Message Edited by IBIS on 08-07-2009 09:51 AM

[Peppermill]

"But what's most telling is when Charles courts her, and they share a glass of wine. Flaubert shows her sucking her fingers and licking out the bottom of her wine glass. This reveals to us, despite all her pretensions to refinement, her basic animal sensuality and lust for physical pleasure."

It is absolutely intriguing to me that Flaubert is so generous in descriptive passages and so restrained in any descriptions of carnal pleasure on the part of Charles -- yet the implications are there, regardless of Emma's responses or lack thereof.

Thanks for calling our attention to other motifs.

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IBIS wrote:

Thank you, Peppermill, for bringing up the horse motif in "Madame Bovary."

I've always enjoyed the "treasure hunt" approach to finding motifs in classics. There are several in "Madame Bovary". Here are two that I've noticed so far.

WINDOWS.... Just in these early chapters, we see windows come up again and again... they're associated with Emma... we often see her looking out of them, or we glimpse her through windows. When she contemplates suicide, she thinks about jumping out a window.

Emma's father bangs the window shutter open to tell Charles that she accepts his proposal.

At the ball, because of the heat, a servant breaks a window to let air in. Emma sees the peasants outside staring in, they remind her of her similar humble origins.

EATING...  another motif. There is a LOT of eating going on in this novel. There is enough food to feed busloads (cartloads?) of peasants. At her wedding feast, Flaubert described the food in such detail, it seemed like too much food for 43 guests to eat.

And HOW one eats is reveals important character traits... Charles has atrocious table manners. We see him through Emma's eyes, and she is disgusted with him. She thinks he is boorish and lacks sophistication.

At the fancy ball, she observes the exquisite table manners of the aristocrats... The expensive foods they consume tells us of the refinement and sophistication of their class. When she sees the women put their gloves inside their wine glasses, she's totally charmed by it.

But what's most telling is when Charles courts her, and they share a glass of wine. Flaubert shows her sucking her fingers and licking out the bottom of her wine glass. This reveals to us, despite all her pretensions to refinement, her basic animal sensuality and lust for physical pleasure.

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[bartzturkeymom]

Not to pick nits...but it was curacao instead of wine so these would be tiny glasses (and she only pored a little for herself) and thicker liquer - so even more sensual - like licking syrup

 yum

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IBIS wrote:

But what's most telling is when Charles courts her, and they share a glass of wine. Flaubert shows her sucking her fingers and licking out the bottom of her wine glass. This reveals to us, despite all her pretensions to refinement, her basic animal sensuality and lust for physical pleasure.

Message Edited by IBIS on 08-07-2009 09:51 AM

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[bartzturkeymom]

There's horses - racing, conveyance, etc. And then there are the people who interact with horses. Emma was very disappointed that the groom only came, did his work and left because she would have liked to make him her friend. It was also the horses racing past them after the ball which occasioned them finding the cigar holder that she swiped from Charles when he wasn't looking.

[IBIS]

Yes, exactly so, Sue. Curacao is definitely thicker, and more sensual to lick.

Excellent distinction. Thanks for pointing it out.

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bartzturkeymom wrote:

Not to pick nits...but it was curacao instead of wine so these would be tiny glasses (and she only pored a little for herself) and thicker liquer - so even more sensual - like licking syrup

 yum

---

IBIS wrote:

But what's most telling is when Charles courts her, and they share a glass of wine. Flaubert shows her sucking her fingers and licking out the bottom of her wine glass. This reveals to us, despite all her pretensions to refinement, her basic animal sensuality and lust for physical pleasure.

Message Edited by IBIS on 08-07-2009 09:51 AM

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[IBIS]

Picking up the horses' motif thread, I'm reading in part 2, chapter 9... where Charles becomes the unwitting accomplice to Emma's infidelity...

Rodolphe offers to take Emma horseriding; she demurs at first. But Charles, blind to Rodolphe's intentions, and hoping to improve Emma's health with exercise, insists she accept.

He even writes to Rodolphe himself to arrange the horse ride. On the ride, Emma and Rodolphe become lovers.

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bartzturkeymom wrote:
There's horses - racing, conveyance, etc. And then there are the people who interact with horses. Emma was very disappointed that the groom only came, did his work and left because she would have liked to make him her friend. It was also the horses racing past them after the ball which occasioned them finding the cigar holder that she swiped from Charles when he wasn't looking.

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[Choisya]

A major theme in the novel is Romanticism v. Realism and I came across this list, (SPOILER) which gives some illustrations of where this occurs.  I have posted elsewhere of my delight in this juxtaposition and hope that others will come up with more examples and quotes.

Illusion:

Emma spends money extravagantly, as if it’s unlimited. 

Reality:

The Bovarys have been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of Emma’s uncontrolled expenditures.

Illusion:

Emma believes that adultery will free her from the confines of her marriage.

Reality:

She fails to recognize that upon each new conquest, she is once again bored and unfulfilled.

Illusion:

Emma believes the poison she takes to end her life will not cause her great pain. She expects to swoon and die gracefully, as characters do in her novels.

Reality:

After taking the poison, Emma falls severely ill and suffers great pain.

Illusion:

Charles is content, believing he and Emma are happily married.

Reality:       

Charles is blind to Emma's adultery. 

Illusion:   

The bourgeoisie, or French middle class, appear to have everything.

Reality:   

From Flaubert’s description, it seems this society has no spiritual or emotional depth.  

Illusion:

Homais is awarded the Legion of Honor and is seen as a great man.

Reality:

Flaubert depicts Homais as a simpering, self-important deceiver.

Message Edited by Choisya on 08-08-2009 06:04 AM

[Peppermill]

Good list!  Thanks, Choisya!

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Choisya wrote:

A major theme in the novel is Romanticism v. Realism and I came across this list, (SPOILER) which gives some illustrations of where this occurs.  I have posted elsewhere of my delight in this juxtaposition and hope that others will come up with more examples and quotes.

Illusion:

Emma spends money extravagantly, as if it’s unlimited. 

Reality:

The Bovarys have been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of Emma’s uncontrolled expenditures.

Illusion:

Emma believes that adultery will free her from the confines of her marriage.

Reality:

She fails to recognize that upon each new conquest, she is once again bored and unfulfilled.

Illusion:

Emma believes the poison she takes to end her life will not cause her great pain. She expects to swoon and die gracefully, as characters do in her novels.

Reality:

After taking the poison, Emma falls severely ill and suffers great pain.

Illusion:

Charles is content, believing he and Emma are happily married.

Reality:       

Charles is blind to Emma's adultery. 

Illusion:   

The bourgeoisie, or French middle class, appear to have everything.

Reality:   

From Flaubert’s description, it seems this society has no spiritual or emotional depth.  

Illusion:

Homais is awarded the Legion of Honor and is seen as a great man.

Reality:

Flaubert depicts Homais as a simpering, self-important deceiver.

---

[IBIS]

Good post, Choiysa. Thanks for bringing this theme to our attention.

I've come up with another example.

Emma's capacity for imagination is far greater than her capacity for analysis. Her observation is good when it comes to surface details... such as how people are dressed, but she never looks below the surface. 

Illusion: As a result, she is easily taken in by people who pretend to be something other than they really are (like Rodolphe whom she believes genuinely loves her, and Lhereux, the money lender who cheats her with exorbitant interest rates).

Emma not only believes in the false fronts other people present to her...

Reality: But she despises the very few people (Charles's mother, Madame Homais, and Monsieur Binet) who are exactly as they appear to be.

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Choisya wrote:

A major theme in the novel is Romanticism v. Realism and I came across this list, (SPOILER) which gives some illustrations of where this occurs.  I have posted elsewhere of my delight in this juxtaposition and hope that others will come up with more examples and quotes.

Illusion:

Emma spends money extravagantly, as if it’s unlimited. 

Reality:

The Bovarys have been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of Emma’s uncontrolled expenditures.

Illusion:

Emma believes that adultery will free her from the confines of her marriage.

Reality:

She fails to recognize that upon each new conquest, she is once again bored and unfulfilled.

Illusion:

Emma believes the poison she takes to end her life will not cause her great pain. She expects to swoon and die gracefully, as characters do in her novels.

Reality:

After taking the poison, Emma falls severely ill and suffers great pain.

Illusion:

Charles is content, believing he and Emma are happily married.

Reality:       

Charles is blind to Emma's adultery. 

Illusion:   

The bourgeoisie, or French middle class, appear to have everything.

Reality:   

From Flaubert’s description, it seems this society has no spiritual or emotional depth.  

Illusion:

Homais is awarded the Legion of Honor and is seen as a great man.

Reality:

Flaubert depicts Homais as a simpering, self-important deceiver.

---

[Choisya]

Here is a little travelogue about Ry,  the town upon which Flaubert supposedly based Yonville, and about the real Madame Bovary. (SPOILER) And some more pics of Ry (text translated from the French). 

(SPOILER) And here is something about Delphine Delamere and Louise Pradier who may have been Flaubert's 'models' for Emma Bovary. 

[Peppermill]

More on Flaubert and realism:

Gustave Flaubert

"It was Gustave Flaubert who in 1857 produced the seminal work from which later literary Realism was to flow: Madame Bovary. Flaubert had begun his writing career as most young authors in his time did, as a Romantic, laboring on a tale of Medieval mysticism which was eventually published as La Tentation de Saint Antoine (The Temptation of Saint Anthony). When he read an early draft of this work to some friends, they urged him to attempt something more down to earth. He chose the story of an adulterous woman married to an unimaginative country physician unable to respond to--or even comprehend--her romantic longings. Drawing on the real-life stories of two women--Delphine Delamare and Louise Pradier--whose experiences he was intimately familiar with, Flaubert labored to turn journalism into art while avoiding the romantic clichés he associated with his heroine's fevered imagination.

"Like Balzac, he engaged in systematic research, modeling the village in his novel on an actual country town and even drawing a map of it detailed enough to allow scholars to catch him when he has Emma Bovary turn in the wrong direction on one of her walks. Unlike Balzac, he avoided the sensational sort of plot lines characteristic of Romantic novels. To modern readers a married woman carrying on two adulterous affairs and then committing suicide may seem fairly sensational, but it is important to note that there was a long tradition of tales of female adultery in French literature stretching back as far as the Middle Ages. What Flaubert did with the theme was give adultery the shocking impact of the tabloids by stripping his tale of the high romantic idealism that usually justified adultery; instead he systematically satirized his heroine's bourgeois taste for exotic art and sensational stories. The novel is almost an anti-romantic tract.

"Despite the fact that it is generally agreed to be one of the most finely crafted works to be created in the 19th century, it would probably never have had the impact it did if Madame Bovary had not also been the subject of a sensational obscenity trial. So restrained were the standards of polite fiction in mid-19th-century France that many modern readers go right past the big "sex scenes" which got Flaubert into trouble without noticing them (hints: look for Rodolphe to smoke while working on his harness just after making love with Emma for the first time while she experiences the afterglow, and for Emma to toss torn-up pieces of a note out of her carriage during her lovemaking with Léon). However, they were enough to outrage the defenders of middle-class morality. The prosecution was particularly indignant that Emma did not seem to suffer for her sins. Flaubert's clever lawyer successfully argued that her grotesquely described death made the novel into a moral tale; but the fact is that she dies not because she is an adultress but because she is a shopaholic.

"It is not only the literary style of Madame Bovary that is anti-Romantic, it is its subject as well. The narrative clearly portrays Emma as deluded for trying to model her life after the Romantic fiction she loves. The novel is a sort of anti-Romantic manifesto, and its notoriety spread its message far and wide. It is worth noting, however, that Flaubert returned to Romanticism from time to time in his career, for instance in Salammbo, a colorful historical novel set in ancient Carthage.

Influence of Realism

"Realism had profound effects on fiction from places as far-flung as Russia and the Americas. The novel, which had been born out of the romance as a more or less fantastic narrative, settled into a realistic mode which is still dominant today. Aside from genre fiction such as fantasy and horror, we expect the ordinary novel today to be based in our own world, with recognizably familiar types of characters endowed with no supernatural powers, doing the sorts of things that ordinary people do every day. It is easy to forget that this expectation is only a century and a half old, and that the great bulk of the world's fiction before departed in a wide variety of ways from this standard, which has been applied to film and television as well. Even comic strips now usually reflect daily life. Repeated revolts against this standard by various postmodernist and magical realist varieties of fiction have not dislodged the dominance of realism in fiction."

"Realism and Naturalism" by Paul Brians

Bold in text added.

[Choisya]

The novel is almost an anti-romantic tract.

Thanks for this P.  I love the idea put here that MB died not because she was an adulteress but because she was a shopaholic!  As you know, I am an anti--romantic myself so very much appreciate this aspect of the novel.  I have found myself laughing aloud at the many 'send ups' of romantic novels in MB and thought how Mary Wollstonecraft would have approved.  However, I have read somewhere that Flaubert was himself a romantic, which seems at odds with his anti-romanticism?  Have you come across this assessment of his own character?  Did he write such a good anti-romantic novel because he well knew what romanticism was?

---

Peppermill wrote:

More on Flaubert and realism:

Gustave Flaubert

"It was Gustave Flaubert who in 1857 produced the seminal work from which later literary Realism was to flow: Madame Bovary. Flaubert had begun his writing career as most young authors in his time did, as a Romantic, laboring on a tale of Medieval mysticism which was eventually published as La Tentation de Saint Antoine (The Temptation of Saint Anthony). When he read an early draft of this work to some friends, they urged him to attempt something more down to earth. He chose the story of an adulterous woman married to an unimaginative country physician unable to respond to--or even comprehend--her romantic longings. Drawing on the real-life stories of two women--Delphine Delamare and Louise Pradier--whose experiences he was intimately familiar with, Flaubert labored to turn journalism into art while avoiding the romantic clichés he associated with his heroine's fevered imagination.

"Like Balzac, he engaged in systematic research, modeling the village in his novel on an actual country town and even drawing a map of it detailed enough to allow scholars to catch him when he has Emma Bovary turn in the wrong direction on one of her walks. Unlike Balzac, he avoided the sensational sort of plot lines characteristic of Romantic novels. To modern readers a married woman carrying on two adulterous affairs and then committing suicide may seem fairly sensational, but it is important to note that there was a long tradition of tales of female adultery in French literature stretching back as far as the Middle Ages. What Flaubert did with the theme was give adultery the shocking impact of the tabloids by stripping his tale of the high romantic idealism that usually justified adultery; instead he systematically satirized his heroine's bourgeois taste for exotic art and sensational stories. The novel is almost an anti-romantic tract.

"Despite the fact that it is generally agreed to be one of the most finely crafted works to be created in the 19th century, it would probably never have had the impact it did if Madame Bovary had not also been the subject of a sensational obscenity trial. So restrained were the standards of polite fiction in mid-19th-century France that many modern readers go right past the big "sex scenes" which got Flaubert into trouble without noticing them (hints: look for Rodolphe to smoke while working on his harness just after making love with Emma for the first time while she experiences the afterglow, and for Emma to toss torn-up pieces of a note out of her carriage during her lovemaking with Léon). However, they were enough to outrage the defenders of middle-class morality. The prosecution was particularly indignant that Emma did not seem to suffer for her sins. Flaubert's clever lawyer successfully argued that her grotesquely described death made the novel into a moral tale; but the fact is that she dies not because she is an adultress but because she is a shopaholic.

"It is not only the literary style of Madame Bovary that is anti-Romantic, it is its subject as well. The narrative clearly portrays Emma as deluded for trying to model her life after the Romantic fiction she loves. The novel is a sort of anti-Romantic manifesto, and its notoriety spread its message far and wide. It is worth noting, however, that Flaubert returned to Romanticism from time to time in his career, for instance in Salammbo, a colorful historical novel set in ancient Carthage.

Influence of Realism

"Realism had profound effects on fiction from places as far-flung as Russia and the Americas. The novel, which had been born out of the romance as a more or less fantastic narrative, settled into a realistic mode which is still dominant today. Aside from genre fiction such as fantasy and horror, we expect the ordinary novel today to be based in our own world, with recognizably familiar types of characters endowed with no supernatural powers, doing the sorts of things that ordinary people do every day. It is easy to forget that this expectation is only a century and a half old, and that the great bulk of the world's fiction before departed in a wide variety of ways from this standard, which has been applied to film and television as well. Even comic strips now usually reflect daily life. Repeated revolts against this standard by various postmodernist and magical realist varieties of fiction have not dislodged the dominance of realism in fiction."

"Realism and Naturalism" by Paul Brians

Bold in text added.

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[Peppermill]

C -- my own hypothesis about Flaubert is that his own cyncism eventually did him in.

I'll try to find some more substantial things that I can readily post, but he did die an unhappy man as I recall.

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Choisya wrote:

The novel is almost an anti-romantic tract.

Thanks for this P.  I love the idea put here that MB died not because she was an adulteress but because she was a shopaholic!  As you know, I am an anti--romantic myself so very much appreciate this aspect of the novel.  I have found myself laughing aloud at the many 'send ups' of romantic novels in MB and thought how Mary Wollstonecraft would have approved.  However, I have read somewhere that Flaubert was himself a romantic, which seems at odds with his anti-romanticism?  Have you come across this assessment of his own character?  Did he write such a good anti-romantic novel because he well knew what romanticism was?

---

[IBIS]

Flaubert does seem conflicted. He wrote sentimentally romantic novels. He also claimed that "Madame Bovary is me," ... that like her, he too was overwhelmed by romantic longings.

But he mocks the very romanticism that seems to define him.

In section of part 2, Chapter 4...  Emma thinks "Love, she thought, must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings, a hurricane of the skies, which sweeps down on life, upsets everything, .... uproots the will like a leaf and carries away the heart as in an abyss."

Then he satirizes her: "She did not know that on the terrace of houses, the rain makes lakes when the pipes are choked, and she would thus have remained safe in her ignorance when she suddenly discovered a rent in the wall."

He mocks her romantic idea of love as an overwhelming transformative force of nature by juxtaposing images of hurricanes and tempests with the mundane... water damage of her house.

When Emma discovers the dent in the wall, he mocks her lack of practical knowledge, as well as her inability to think of the damage caused by hurricanes and rainstorms. 

[Choisya]

I think these juxtapositions are part of the deliberate style of the novel Ibis, which I commented upon earlier.  He is mocking romanticism here in MB but, as you say, he admitted to being romantic himself and his friends reported that he was.  What a crazy mixed up guy! 

I think he had quite a low opinion of women, was a bit of a misogynist, so perhaps he thought that their romanticism was a bad thing but in men it was acceptable?  Perhaps he was an early exponent of men 'getting in touch with their feminine side'.   

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IBIS wrote:

Flaubert does seem conflicted. He wrote sentimentally romantic novels. He also claimed that "Madame Bovary is me," ... that like her, he too was overwhelmed by romantic longings.

But he mocks the very romanticism that seems to define him.

In section of part 2, Chapter 4...  Emma thinks "Love, she thought, must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings, a hurricane of the skies, which sweeps down on life, upsets everything, .... uproots the will like a leaf and carries away the heart as in an abyss."

Then he satirizes her: "She did not know that on the terrace of houses, the rain makes lakes when the pipes are choked, and she would thus have remained safe in her ignorance when she suddenly discovered a rent in the wall."

He mocks her romantic idea of love as an overwhelming transformative force of nature by juxtaposing images of hurricanes and tempests with the mundane... water damage of her house.

When Emma discovers the dent in the wall, he mocks her lack of practical knowledge, as well as her inability to think of the damage caused by hurricanes and rainstorms. 

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